Are Google and Microsoft Bing Misleading Us About AI-Driven Click Quality?
According to a new study by Dan Taylor of SALT.agency, users coming from LLMs are usually less engaged. They are less engaged than those arriving from regular search engines.
This new data questions the claims by Google and Microsoft Bing that AI search result citations lead to better-quality clicks.
Why we care. It’s alarming to realize that SEO continues to be a crucial channel. It is disheartening to witness search engines spinning outright lies to our community. They do this just to push their ridiculous “AI is the best thing ever” agenda.
By the numbers. In most sectors, organic traffic outperforms LLM referrals in driving engagement. This was based on a metric called Key Event Conversion Rate (KECVR) — the percentage of sessions that trigger key GA4 events:
- Organic: KECVR was higher in sectors like Consumer Ecommerce (24.12% vs. 17.14%) and Travel (28.97% vs. 24.25%).
- LLMs: only outperformed in a few verticals: Health (13.24% vs. 12.88%), Careers (22.31% vs. 16.58%), and Catalog websites (2.34% vs. 2.13%).
LLM traffic is growing. LLM referral traffic has risen since March 2024. ChatGPT is at the forefront, followed by Perplexity.
Between the lines: LLM traffic is a double-edged sword. It shines in the realm of early-stage research or casual inquiries. However, it falls flat when it comes to driving high-intent transactional behavior. For example:
- B2B Ecommerce showed 0% LLM conversions compared to 2.68% for organic search.
- SaaS was the most balanced: 6.69% (LLM) vs. 6.71% (organic), suggesting LLMs may have support potential in complex sectors.
About the data. Study analyzed nearly 672,000 LLM referral sessions across 40 website sectors. This was done alongside more than 188 million organic search sessions from January to March.
The study. Do users really show higher intent when they click through from an LLM to a website?
